Gordon Nash Library and Academic Resource Center

New Hampton School, New Hampton, NH

New Hampton School is an independent, college preparatory school for boarding and day students, grades 9-12 and postgraduate. With the acquisition of the neighboring Gordon Nash Library (“GNL”), New Hampton School was presented with a unique opportunity to re-think their library services and explore new program initiatives. Jones was asked to conduct a programming study to adapt the Gordon Nash Library ("GNL") from community library to a combined school and community resource by injecting program, functions, and the culture of the New Hampton School into this historic building. By doing so, the former library space in space in the Academic Research Center ("ARC") was made available and envisioned as a home for new programs for innovation, entrepreneurship, and making that will fundamentally reshape the role on campus.

The scope of work includes a programming process with a core team including New Hampton School leadership and librarians, GNL board representation, New Hampton School facilities team, and other key participants. During this process, we developed a matrix of existing program (space type, size, quantity, etc.) and a comparison with a future, speculative proposed program that aligns future growth and program needs.

The resulting GNL project was completed in 2020 and included repurposed spaces to accommodate a more active collaborative study and reading area while preserving interior historic details. Renovations to the ARC are planned for early 2022 and include the transformation of the 2nd level office and library space into a tech-based innovation center. This renovation encourages seamless admin-to-student and student-to-student collaboration.